News

#NYPD line-of-duty injuries soar amid violent anti-police protests

“#NYPD line-of-duty injuries soar amid violent anti-police protests”

They’re NYPD black and blue.

At least 472 cops across all ranks have been injured responding to riots and protests since May 28, department data shows. Officers have been shot at, stabbed, assaulted with rocks, bricks, struck by vehicles and had Molotov cocktails hurled at them, officials said.

Of those injured, 319 cops required hospital treatment and seven, like Lt. Richard Mack, who was badly beaten while making a July arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge, were admitted to hospitals.

“This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” NYPD spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell told The Post.

The 472 hurt cops contributed to 7,528 NYPD line-of-duty injuries so far in 2020, up 47 percent from the 5,133 in 2019, NYPD data through Sept. 24 reveals.

“The average person doesn’t hear about the daily assaults and injuries to police officers,” NYPD Sgt. Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC, told The Post. “Officers are hurt every single day whether in regards to being assigned to routine patrol or a riot location.”

Dozens of suspected looters were arrested in Soho May 31-June 1 as protests over the death of George Floyd descended into chaos. A group of 12 people were busted by cops outside Nike Soho on Broadway and a number of high-end boutiques — and even a Bloomingdale’s department store.

Imperatrice, who was on the scene, said protesters pelted cops with “air mail” — including half-filled drink bottles, garbage, rocks and brick fragments. He said an inspector severely sprained his hand “tackling a subject running away from the scene of a location where they had just broken storefront windows.”

In June, an upstate woman and two Brooklyn lawyers were indicted on federal explosives and arson charges for allegedly tossing Molotov cocktails at NYPD vehicles during protests.

Samantha Shader, 27, of Catskill, is accused of hurling the makeshift explosive at an NYPD vehicle occupied by four police officers on early Saturday morning, May 30. Prosecutors allege Shader bit an officer’s legs when she was being taken into custody. She has pleaded not guilty.

On June 2, Sgt. William Maher, was struck by a hit-and-run driver during looting in The Bronx. He was released from Lincoln Hospital five days later. Two men, allegedly fleeing a pawnshop break-in when they slammed into Maher, were later arrested in South Carolina, law enforcement sources said.

On July 15, NYPD officers were bloodied and battered by brazen anti-cop activists on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Among the injured: Chief of Department Terence Monahan — the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer — who suffered a broken finger.

Cops attribute the disturbing spike in police injuries to turnstile justice and politicians who don’t have their back.

“The chaos that politicians are encouraging on the streets is putting cops in the hospital,” Patrick Lynch, the fiery head of the Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement. “It is not just the nearly 500 cops who have been hit with bricks and bottles or otherwise injured during supposedly ‘peaceful’ protests.

“Hundreds more are being injured because criminals are emboldened to fight cops the moment we step on the scene. They know our hands are tied. Every New Yorker needs to ask their elected officials how cops can protect them when we can barely protect ourselves.”